Nicaragua Network

1. Central American presidents meet with Obama at Summit of the Americas
2. Wildfire on Mombacho volcano under control
3. Canal briefs: Forum in Panama and visit of German investors
4. Dangerous deep water free diving for lobsters has declined
5. Case of demolished hotel roils media 

1. Central American presidents meet with Obama at Summit of the Americas

On Apr. 10 and 11, the VII Summit of the Americas was held in Panama with Cuba in attendance for the first time. That milestone was overshadowed, however, by the virtually unanimous condemnation of the Mar. 9 declaration by the US that Venezuela represented a security threat to the United States. So before the Summit, US officials tried to mollify the Latin American countries by explaining, as Ben Rhodes of the National Security Council said, “The United States does not believe that Venezuela represents a threat to our national security.” Another advisor to President Barack Obama, Ricardo Zuñiga, said, “We don’t deny that the language of the text created a certain level of confusion among our colleagues in the region.” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that he welcomed the statements of the two advisors and, on that note, the Summit began.

On Friday, Apr. 10, members of the Central American Integration System (SICA) met with President Obama. Attending the meeting were the presidents of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and the Dominican Republic, and the Prime Minister of Belize. Also attending were US Secretary of State John Kerry. Obama said that the United States and Central America shared a strong common agenda, adding, “What is good for the region is good for the United States.” He said he was asking the US Congress for one billion dollars for an Alliance for Prosperity to attack poverty and violence in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis urged Obama to include his country in the plan. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega urged the renewal by the US of Tariff Preference Levels for the garment factories of Nicaragua.

Ortega also said that the US urging of Central American countries to import natural gas from the United States contradicts the efforts of Nicaragua to generate more of its electricity from renewable sources. He said, “Gas is a contaminating product, not as much as coal, but it still contaminates. He noted, “In Nicaragua we have advanced in the use of renewable resources,” but he added that, “We have had to slow them down because … with the drop in the price of petroleum it is cheaper to generate [electricity] with fuel oil…. Right now in Nicaragua we are subsidizing renewable energy.”

On Friday evening, Jose Miguel Inzulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States, inaugurated the official summit saying, “This Summit in Panama is very special because it is the first time in the history of the Americas that the heads of the 35 governments of the hemisphere sit around the same table.” He expressed what he called “our great happiness for the moment we are living with the Colombian peace talks, the conversations between the US and Cuba to reestablish diplomatic relations, … the reconstruction in Haiti, Belize and Guatemala advancing in resolving their territorial difference…. All these events form the road to a commitment to peace.” He said there were many problems still to resolve noting that “America is not a poor continent but one in four of our citizens is poor.” Also at the inauguration ceremony, Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin read a message from Pope Francis which he said that “inequality and unjust distribution of wealth and resources” are the source of conflict and insisted that no human being should be excluded from land, work, housing, education, health care and a safe environment.

In his Saturday speech Daniel Ortega said that at earlier Summits of the Americas there had been two notable absences—that of Cuba and that of Puerto Rico. He said, “Cuba is now with us. But Puerto Rico is missing and Cuba and Puerto Rico are like two wings of the same bird. Puerto Rico is Latin American; it is Caribbean.” He noted that Puerto Rican independence leader Ruben Berrios was a part of the Nicaraguan delegation and at dinner the night before had shook hands with Obama who said he was open to dialogue with Puerto Rico.

With relation to Venezuela, Ortega said that Latin Americans were right to think that nothing had changed if the US, while starting a dialogue with Cuba, had increased threats against Venezuela. He rejected the explanation that the US had to say that Venezuela was a threat to the United States in order to prohibit several officials from travelling to the US. “If it was to deny visas, why was a decree necessary? They deny visas to us every day!” He said that it was the fault of the United States that no final declaration was coming out of the Summit: “Why will there be no final document from this Summit? Because of the United States. There was consensus on almost everything, except on the subject of the decree against Venezuela.”

In his speech, Cuban President Raul Castro called on the countries of the Americas to unite efforts against climate change, terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime. He noted that there had been hemispheric cooperation to confront the Ebola epidemic and that this “should serve as an incentive for greater efforts.” He stated that over the last 50 years Cuba has shared its expertise with other countries and now has 65,000 volunteers (mainly in medicine and education) working in 89 countries and Cuba has trained 68,000 professionals and technicians from 157 countries around the globe. He asked, “If with very scarce resources Cuba has been able to do this, why couldn’t the hemisphere find the political will to join forces to contribute to the neediest countries?”

There were two side meetings to the Summit also taking place in Panama: the Summit of the Peoples and the Civil Society Forum organized as part of the Summit.  Attending the Civil Society Forum were representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from around the hemisphere, including opposition figures from Venezuela and Cuban exiles opposed to the government of Raul Castro. Delegations of supporters of the Venezuelan and Cuban governments pulled out of the Forum on Apr. 8 with the Cuban delegation accusing the other Cuban participants of being financed with foreign funding and “valuing their friendships with terrorists” in a reference to the Miami Cuban exile community. “We cannot be in the same space with them,” said Cuban legislator Luis Morlote. Morlote added that the official Cuban delegation would participate in the round tables of the Forum. On April 10, there was a confrontation between the two Cuban groups at the round table on democratic governance. According to Violeta Granera of the Movement for Nicaragua [an NGO founded with US money], the Cuban delegation “demanded that we turn away the dissident Cuban civil society organizations” and that at a press conference they “showed great disrespect” and tried “to boycott civil society dialogue but they were not able to do so.” Several presidents attended the closing session of this forum, including Obama. In his speech, Obama said that “strong nations had no fear” of civil society.” He also said that the days of US intervention in the hemisphere were over and he spoke only in general terms of the “risks’ to human rights and liberties that still exist in the region and in other parts of the world without mentioning specific cases.

Attending the Summit of the Peoples were 3,500 delegates mainly from trade unions, peasant farmer organizations, and indigenous, women’s, and students’ organizations, including a delegation from Nicaragua. The final Summit of the Peoples declaration condemned “aggressions and threats of all kinds from the United States and its allies against our region through the construction of military bases, operations sites, and similar installations that in the last four years have grown in number from 21 to 76.” The declaration demanded an end to the trade embargo against Cuba and the closing of the US military base at Guantanamo. The declaration also supported Puerto Rican independence and condemned the US declaration that Venezuela was a threat to the United States which it said “merited the unanimous rejection of all of the countries of our America.” (La Prensa, Apr. 10; Informe Pastran, Apr. 10, 13; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 11, 12; Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 8, 9, 10, 11)

2. Wildfire on Mombacho volcano under control

On Apr. 12, the government announced that the wildfire that had been burning for days on the sides of the Mombacho volcano had finally been controlled by firefighters and was now limited to one point. The joint announcement from the System for the Prevention and Attention to Disasters (SINAPRED), Civil Defense, the Forestry Institute, the Environment Ministry, the National Police, and the Fire Department stated that a firebreak 4.5 kilometers long by eight meters wide had contributed to the near-extinguishing of the fire. Community residents are continuing to lengthen the firebreak, according to the authorities who said that specialized personnel would remain in the area until the fire is completely out. Authorities said they planned to produce a report that would include input from all involved in controlling the fire, including local governments, Sandinista Human Development Councils, and area farmers.

The fire destroyed 148 acres in and near the Mombacho Nature Reserve. It evidently began on Mar. 31 but community members first tried to fight it on their own and firefighters were not notified until Apr. 2. Captain Evert Marenco of the Granada Fire Department said that weather conditions and steep terrain had made the work of fighting the fire difficult. He said that they used hoses 1,000 meters in length and one hose that was 15,000 meters long to reach the fire zone. He noted that there were four blazes and added that there are some benefits to ecosystems from a fire but he called on farmers to avoid burning pastures because fires can get out of hand. Community leader Epson Reyes Pastran lamented the fire and said that there should be an investigation to determine if it had been set by people who were hunting iguanas. (Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 11, 13; El Nuevo Diario, Apr. 11; La Prensa, Apr. 10)

3. Canal briefs: Forum in Panama and visit of German investors

Several groups opposed to the proposed shipping canal across Nicaragua held a forum in Panama in the lead up to the Summit of the Americas entitled “Nicaragua’s Inter-Oceanic Canal and Its Impacts.” Among the presenters were Nemesio Mejia of the National Council for the Defense of the Land, the Lake and National Sovereignty; Azahalea Solis of the Autonomous Women’s Movement; and two opposition National Assembly Deputies—Enrique Saenz of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) and Pedro Joaquin Chamorro of the Independent Liberal Party (PLI). Mejia spoke about what he said was the unwarranted use of force by the National Police against protesters against the canal last December. Solis said that the concession to the Chinese HKND Company violated the Nicaraguan constitution adding, “Nicaragua cannot do anything against it, but if the [concession] law is declared in violation of human rights [by an international tribunal], then Nicaragua is obligated to respond. This is one of the greatest [challenges] that we have lived through in all of our history as a republic.” Chamorro questioned the viability of a canal of the size proposed and said that “Its construction would be the greatest ecological disaster in the world in recent years.” The forum was sponsored by the right wing Miami-based Inter-American Institute for Democracy (IID) and the equally conservative Liberty Foundation in Panama. (La Prensa, Apr. 8, 12; Informe Pastran, Apr. 8, 9)

A delegation of business leaders from Germany arrived in Nicaragua on Apr. 13. Presidential advisor Paul Oquist said that they came to investigate opportunities for investment in energy, agriculture and the proposed shipping canal and would be meeting with representatives of the government and the private business sector. Executives in the delegation are from Siemens, Volkswagen, GAUFF, Lucas Nulle, Iak Agrar IBU, Projekt Gmbh and Engineering KG. The canal was the subject of an article in the German newspaper Expressen which called it one of the greatest works of engineering in history but said that there were doubts about the delayed studies of financial feasibility and environmental and social impacts. The article also said, “Many observers also see it as an expression of the ambition of China to establish a beachhead in Central America, long considered the backyard of the United States.” Canal spokesperson Telemaco Talavera defended the project saying, “The canal will bring prosperity to this poor nation,” adding, “It’s not going to be easy to build the canal. If it were easy, someone would have already done it.” (Radio La Primerisima, Apr. 13; Informe Pastran, Apr. 13)

4. Dangerous deep water free diving for lobsters has declined

Danilo Rosales, vice-president of the National Fisheries Institute (INPESCA), said last week that the number of boats using divers for the harvest of lobsters and other shellfish had declined by 50%. He told the Labor Committee of the National Assembly that many lobster fishers had changed to using traps instead of deep water free diving. Lobster diving has been done mainly by Miskito Indigenous men and many have been incapacitated or have died from the bends when ascending after dives. The committee is holding hearings about compliance with commitments by the lobster industry for conversion to safer methods of harvesting the shellfish.

Rosales said that there would not be another postponement of enforcement of the 2007 Law for the Protection and Security of Divers which has already been postponed twice. The 2013 postponement ends Mar. 13, 2016, and INPESCA officials assured the National Assembly that “there is a strategic plan with precise actions that will slowly overcome the obstacles to changing the labor technology” in the field. Assembly Deputy Maritza Espinales said that conditions are improving due to three financing programs to support new techniques for small-scale shellfish harvesting. (La Prensa, Apr. 8)

5. Case of demolished hotel roils media

The news media has been full in recent days of reports about the demolition on Apr. 3 by the National Port Authority (EPN) of a nearly-completed 65 room hotel on the island of Ometepe in Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) owned by businessman Milton Arcia. Arcia said, “They came to demolish it without presenting me with any explanation or documentation.” The construction was located on the lakeshore just north of the pier at Moyogalpa.

Arcia stated that the Ministry of the Environment approved the project several years ago and he added that the government had given him the property in compensation for a piece of land on the shore of Lake Xolotlan (Lake Managua) in Managua. However, environmentalist Kamilo Lara told Channel 12 News that Arcia had violated the law on coastal development, had been notified, and had paid no attention to the notifications. He said that Arcia had not presented an environmental impact study for the hotel which was located only five meters from the lake.

As it turns out, Attorney General Hernan Estrada had signed an order on Mar. 27 expropriating the property for public use in the expansion of the port of Moyogalpa. However, the order was not officially published until Apr. 9, six days after the hotel had been demolished. Arcia has 15 days to negotiate with the government for compensation for the expropriated property which includes docks and offices and which he (Arcia) estimates has a value of US$10 million.

Former Attorney General Alberto Novoa said that this proceeding was contrary to the law which mandates that first the property be declared of public utility followed by discussions between the parties about the amount of compensation. Presidential economic advisor Bayardo Arce told Informe Pastran that Arcia had been notified “but he likes a show and they [the EPN] had to resort to an action that it seems to me was not the best, but I imagine that the government through its authorized spokespeople will give its version at the proper time.” He clarified that he was not speaking as a government spokesman, noting that the executive branch had said nothing yet about the issue.

Meanwhile, Arcia says that he is the victim of the personal ambition of the head of the EPN Virgilio Silva; that the expropriation is a reprisal because he refused to lower the price for transporting goods between Ometepe and San Jorge, Rivas; and that he is being persecuted for financing marches on Ometepe and elsewhere against the proposed shipping canal. There is also a complicated dispute with the Port Authority over a yacht. (El Nuevo Diario, Apr.6, 11, 12; Informe Pastran, Apr. 7, 9, 10)